site.btaCC-DB Warn about Possible Delay of Bulgaria's Admission by Land into Schengen Because of Suspended Public Procurement

Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) MEP Radan Kanev and MP Martin Dimitrov warned at a Friday briefing in Parliament that Bulgaria's admission by land into Schengen can be delayed because of a suspended public procurement for high-tech customs equipment, special scanners and x-rays, for better control at country’s border checkpoints. The deputies noted that Bulgaria can lose the grant funding from the European Commission (EC) for the customs equipment. 

Under EC requirements Bulgaria is to implement a transparent public procurement, which, in Dimitrov's words, has been terminated and a specific company has being selected for direct negotiations. According to him, this is a huge mistake because all those who do not want Bulgaria in the land-border Schengen now have a formal argument to ask for a postponement.

Kanev said that the tender was announced by the cabinet of Nikolay Denkov (in office June 2023 - April 2024) and was subsequently suspended by two caretaker governments. 

Dimitrov said that the procurement was appealed before the Commission for Protection of Competition, and the Supreme Administrative Court decided that it had to be terminated and a new one announced. However, the Ministry of Finance and the Customs Agency decided that they would not comply with the instructions and contracted with a specific company, Dimitrov added.

According to the MP, the EC will raise questions as it has secured grant funding of BGN 63 million for the scanners and equipment.

Kanev explained that the funding under the EU border management instrument aims to provide customs equipment to ensure much more serious control of all European customs with a focus on external borders. The fact that Bulgaria cancelled a public procurement and switched to direct and secret contracting with a currently unknown company is already known in Brussels and is causing serious tensions, he said. The project documentation, under which Bulgaria receives the grant funding, contains explicit instructions for transparent public procurement based on the rules of the European directive and Bulgarian legislation, the MEP said.

The MEP said that he will ask the EC what the Bulgarian Government should do in order not to lose the funding, as well as what measures are needed to speed up the purchase. He urged the government “to stop this illegal activity’.